Electronics and Programming Guides

September 01, 2022 (Last Updated: November 14, 2022) | Reading Time: About 1 minute

Discover helpful and inciteful tips that you can use in your electronics and programming projects. We are focused on home-brew electronics, specifically for home automation. We like to use MQTT, Home Assistant, Node-RED, and Zigbee along with Node MCU and Arduino. With this combination of electronics and programming, you can automate anything.

We share some information about electronics fundamentals as well as knowledge about more advanced topics in electronics. It is very helpful to learn fundamentals such as Ohm's Law and resister networks when you are building home automation circuits.

Here you can find guides and articles with creative ideas, tips, and advice about programming, electronics, and home automation.

When you mix programming and electronics together you get fun.

EFUNDIES.com currently provides articles and guides related to electronics and programming. When our site update is complete, we plan to offer source code collaboration. We will also be adding guides and articles about home automation, so check in often to see our new projects.

More from Efundies

Resistors in Series

When you wire resistors in series, you can simply add their values together to get the new equivalent reistance.

How to Adjust the Contrast of an Image in C#

Adjusting the contrast of an image in C# is an easy operation because it can be done on a single pixel at a time.

How to Create a WinAVR C Skeleton File

If you are New To C then you can consider this a crash course introduction to the language.

You can see that the MIDI data generated in Ableton Live flows into the USB port of an Arduino, where it is used to control solenoids.

MIDI Controlled Solenoids with Arduino and Ableton Live - Part 3

This is the 3rd and final part in a 3 part series about how to control solenoids using Ableton Live and an Arduino.

How to Darken an Image in C#

In order to darken an image in C# you need to look at each pixel one at a time and decrease it's red, green, and blue values.

AVR microcontroler with printf function

AVR and printf

You should leave your STK500 setup exactly the same as it was setup for a previous guide.

How to Implement AVR Timer Interrupts in C for Atmel Microcontrollers

Timer interrupts are an excellent way of having your AVR do something at a given interval.

How to Lighten an Image in C#

In order to lighten an image in C# you need to look at each pixel one at a time and increase it's red, green, and blue values.

Node-RED makes writing home automations fast and easy.

Node-RED

Node-RED is the easiest way to manage your home automation rules. It couples well with Home Assistant and is much easier to program.

There are many different Arduinos to choose from, such as this Uno variety.

Arduino

Many home automation projects can be solved by simply "throwing an Arduino at it". Our Arduino articles show you how.

How to Set Up STK500 Jumper Settings for AVR Programming

Make sure that you have the STK500 user guide on hand, you are going to need it.

C# Switch

A switch statement in C# is a great way to switch between options.

C# Text File

There is a static object called "File" (located in System. IO) that does all the hard work for you.

Image Processing in C#: A Comprehensive Guide

C# is a great language to do image processing in. It's fast and easy to handle complex image manipulations with it.

How to Select the Right Resistor for Your Circuit: A Fundamentals Guide

The most important component to understand in electronics is the resistor.

433 Mhz hardware can extend your home automation.

433 Mhz Radio Transmitters

433 Mhz radio transmitters are available everywhere and they are usually very inexpensive. With a little bit of programming we can make them do anything we want.

MQTT is the easiest way to get IoT devices communicating.

What is MQTT and Why You Need It (How to Automate Anything)

MQTT is a protocol that allows devices to communicate with each other in a simple and efficient way.

AVR Port Input Logic

In this guide we will write a program in C that makes some decisions based on the state of input pins.

Electronics topics include chips, capacitors, resistors, transistors, and building circuit boards.

Electronics

Our collection of electronics articles helps you get started in home automation and circuit building.

Save png

How to Save a PNG File in C#

This guide will walk you through the steps required to save an Image or Bitmap to disc in the PNG format and allow you to specify the compression quality.

If you have to move massive amounts of data, then you should be thinking about Robocopy and rsync.

How to Move Massive Amounts of Data Safely and Efficiently

If you're dealing with a large amount of data, you need to make sure you're moving it safely and efficiently. Here are some tips on how to do just that.

How to Replace A Color in an Image with C#

Sometimes you need to replace one color in an image with another color. C# makes it easy.

Load an Image in C#

- Perhaps you want to create an image processing program. - You may need to resize or rescale an image.

An MQTT broker helps glue your home automation systems together.

How To Choose an MQTT Broker: Mosquitto vs HiveMQ vs Home Assistant

When it comes time to choose an MQTT broker, you have a few choices. Let's check out the pros and cons of Mosquitto, HiveMQ, and Home Assistant's built-in MQTT broker.

Your home automation server can run many different operating systems, including Ubuntu, Proxmox, Unraid, and TrueNAS.

Unraid vs Proxmox vs Ubuntu - Battle For the Best Home Network Server OS

When it comes time to put an operating system on your home network server, you've got a few options.

Home automation servers come in many different styles, from small to big.

How To Choose The Hardware You Need For Your Home Automation Server

How much hardware and money do you have to throw at a home server? It turns out, not much.

How to Read a Schematic - Common Schematic Symbols

There are about 10 that you should memorize, and the rest you can look up. Here we will show you some common schematic symbols and give a brief description of them.

AVR chips come in many different sizes and shapes. Pictured is a PLCC socket.

AVR

The AVR microprocessor is the heart of most Arduinos. Instead of using the Arduino libraries, you can learn to program this chip directly with C++.

How To Read Schematics

Those pictures are called a schematic. A schematic is a picture representation of what we are talking about in electronics.

Learning Linux will help you with many different home automation projects.

Linux

When you get interested in home automation, you are eventually going to want to learn Linux.

Perl may be an old language, but it is still the glue that holds many projects together.

Perl

Perl is one of the most common glue languages available on Linux. It is useful in home automation for quick scripts as well as complex processes.

You can get started programming with a simple setup. All it takes is a laptop and a cup of coffee.

Programming: Tips and Tricks

A collection of tips, tricks, and snippets of code for a variety of programming languages, including C#, AVR, Arduino, and Perl.

This modern LED lightbulb consumes 1/10th the energy of old-school incandescent bulbs.

Electricity

Follow our electricity guides to learn how to read your power meter, save energy, and measure the power usage of various devices in your home.

This note was created using the OneNote CLI command line interface.

OneNote Command Line Interface: All You Need to Know

The OneNote Command Line Interface (CLI) is a powerful tool that lets you manage your OneNote notes from the comfort of your command line.

Analog power meter reading

How to Read Your Power Meter

Learn how to read your power meter and measure the energy consumption of various devices in your home.

If you want to conIf you want to connect to your MQTT broker from the internet, then you need to forward a port in your router.

Connect to Your MQTT Broker from the Internet: Port Forwarding MQTT

If you want to connect to your MQTT broker from the internet, then you need to forward a port in your router

Command line interface

Command Line Interface

Command line interface (CLI) is a text-based interface that is used to operate computer systems.

Resistors in Parallel

Learn how to calculate the equivalent resistance of two resistors when they are wired in parallel.

The newest addition to the Windows command prompt experience, Windows Terminal, is the best choice for most people.

Windows Command Prompt vs PowerShell

When it comes to comparing Windows Command Prompt and PowerShell, there are a few key differences.

MIDI Controlled Solenoids with Arduino and Ableton Live - Part 2

This is part 2 in a 3 part series that shows how to make Ableton Live play music on electric solenoids using an Arduino.